


Souvenir

by zebraljb



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Orphans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-14 00:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18041609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zebraljb/pseuds/zebraljb
Summary: Eggsy brings back something from a mission in France.I had three years of Latin, two years of Spanish. No French. All French from Google Translator.To the lovely eggsyobsessed...all the hugs.





	Souvenir

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eggsyobsessed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggsyobsessed/gifts).



SOUVENIR

“I’m bringing you something back from France.” Eggsy sounds weary yet on edge. Merlin frowns and sits up straighter.

“Lad, if ye think ye are bringing another dog home, I will refuse ye entrance to the house,” Merlin says sternly. “I am sixty, I dinnae have the patience for another dog.”

“I only brought…”

“Six. Ye have come home from all over the world with a dog six times.”

“We got them to good homes,” Eggsy reminds him.

“After they made a mess of OUR home.” But Merlin isn’t really angry. He’s known from day one that his husband has a tender heart when it comes to strays and orphans. 

“I promise it’s not a dog.” Eggsy yawns. “We’ll talk about it when I get home. I should be there around seven. Love you.”

“Lad, I…” Merlin stares at his phone in shock as Eggsy hangs up on him.

Four hours later Merlin is in the kitchen when he hears the front door open. “Babe?”

“Eggsy.”

“Don’t move!” Eggsy yells. “Just…stay where you are, okay? I have a surprise for you.”

“All right.” Merlin smiles down into the soup he’s stirring. Sometimes his lad is still such a child, and he loves that about him.

“Okay.” Eggsy’s voice comes down the hall. “Turn around to face the door…close your eyes.”

Merlin feels silly but does as he’s told. “If something licks my face…”

“She won’t, I don’t think,” Eggsy answers quietly and Merlin starts to worry. He feels Eggsy come closer, smiles as Eggsy kisses him. “Okay, you can open ‘em.”

Merlin looks down at the sleeping toddler in Eggsy’s arms. “Gary Unwin, what the fuck have ye done?” Merlin gasps.

“Shh,” Eggsy says, kissing the black hair. “Told ya it wasn’t a dog.”

“Nae, not a dog…much worse.” Merlin falls into a chair and stares at him.

“Lemme put her on the sofa.” He disappears for a moment and returns to sit next to Merlin at the table. “Just lemme explain.”

“Ye cannae bring home a child like a souvenir,” Merlin says.

“Please, babe.” Merlin studies Eggsy for a long moment. His body language is nervous but his eyes are steel green. 

“All right.”

“Ye know what I was there for,” Eggsy begins, and Merlin nods. A human trafficking ring. “Broke it up right quick…working with Tristan is fucking aces, babe, hook me up with him again?” Merlin simply nods. “Anyway, where we were wasn’t where the kids are being kept. They’re somewhere else. But…there she was.” Eggsy swallows hard. “Just toddling around in her little jammies…dark hair in pigtails…fuck.” He wipes at his face. “Roughed one of the blokes up, got him ta tell me about her. She’s new…just got her in…parents sold her. They fucking SOLD her, Hamish.” A tear trickles down her cheek. “They got official paperwork and everything, saying that guardianship was given to this prick, but they basically sold her.” He pats his jacket pocket. “Got that paperwork right here.”

“But Eggsy, we cannae just take her. There are proper channels…”

“Fuck the proper channels,” Eggsy says savagely. “We got people who can make this official, legit an’ all. She needs someone to love her, an’ who better than us? We been tryin’ the whole adoption thing, but ya know they ain’t lookin’ ta give us a kid.”

“Because of my age,” Merlin says wryly.

“Unfortunately. But babe…” Eggsy takes his hands. “She…she reached up for me, like she knew me. Held on an’ wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t…I couldn’t leave her there.”

“Oh, my Eggsy.” Merlin touches his cheek.

“There’s something else.”

“Christ.” Merlin takes a deep breath. “What?”

“Nah, not like that,” Eggsy says quickly. “It’s something good…she’s meant to be. She’s meant to be with us.”

“Why?”

“Her name is Marguerite.”

“All right,” Merlin says slowly.

“Hamish, that’s French for daisy.”

Merlin looks into his husband’s eyes and doesn’t know what to say. 

“Papa?”

They turn to look at the tiny figure in the doorway. “Bonjour…hello…” Eggsy says softly. “Come here.” He waves her over. She toddles over and hugs his legs. He picks her up and she immediately sucks her thumb.

“How old is she?” Merlin asks.

“Almost three.” 

She studies him silently, eyes dark and huge. Her curling black hair is falling out of its pigtails, and Merlin reaches over to gently tug them back into place. She sits up, looks at him, and reaches out. “Pere.”

Merlin can only take her onto his lap. She sighs and snuggles close to his chest. “But she called you…”

“Papa is Daddy…Pere is Father,” Eggsy says with a tiny grin.

“Eggsy, we don’t have anything…”

“We can get it,” Eggsy insists. “I have enough for her now, clothing and diapers. She can sleep in the spare room, the bed is low enough that if she would tumble out it won’t hurt her. Please, Hamish.”

Merlin pulls back enough that Marguerite has to look up at him. “Her eyes…”

“I know.” Eggsy’s bottom lip trembles a bit. “She looks like Harry, don’t she?”

“Aye.” Merlin sighs as she snuggles close again, surprisingly quiet for a child her age. He supposes she’s seen more in her short life than most people ever would. “Well, we cannae make any decisions tonight.”

“Okay. Want me to take her, or…”

“I will watch the wee lass. Go shower and change, ye look exhausted.”

“Hamish…” Eggsy stands up and looks down at him. “I…” He kisses Merlin’s head. “I’ll be right down.”

 

When Eggsy comes back downstairs twenty minutes later he finds Merlin and Marguerite in the front room, sitting on the sofa and swiping through Merlin’s tablet. “Papa!” She crows with delight, jabbing at the screen. Merlin swipes it. “Papa! Pere!”

“What are you two up to?” Eggsy asks with a small smile. He knows this is a lot, so much to ask, but nothing has ever felt so right. 

“We are looking at pictures. Did you tell her to call us Papa and Pere?”

“No!” Eggsy almost snaps. “I wouldn’t do that, Hamish. She said it the first time I held her…and I obviously didn’t tell her anything about you. She did that on her own.”

“She’s bright.”

“Would I bring ya a kid that ain’t?”

Merlin rolls his eyes. “Ye should have some dinner, lad.”

Marguerite reaches up for Eggsy, who easily swings her onto a hip. “Would you like some soup, little one?” She babbles back at him in baby French but he continues to speak in English as they go to the kitchen.

Merlin spoons soup into a large bowl and a smaller bowl and hands them both to Eggsy. He finds the smallest spoon they have and gives it to Marguerite, but Eggsy ends up feeding her himself. She smiles and laughs, looking up at Eggsy with adoration as he feeds her. “Ye look well together,” Merlin says finally.

“Don’t matter how well we look together,” Eggsy retorts. “You an’ me, we’re a family. We bring her into OUR family. Not just me. Me an’ you.”

“Eggsy, I’m an old man.”

“How come ya weren’t an’ old man when we were fillin’ out paperwork?”

Merlin doesn’t reply and Eggsy smiles triumphantly. Merlin wets a flannel and hands it to him so he can wipe her face when she’s finished. “Here…you should eat.” Merlin reaches out for her and she almost jumps into his arms. “Ye are a brave lass.” She looks at him quizzically but says nothing. “This makes it real,” he says finally, and Eggsy also gives him a quizzical look. “Ye said he wanted a child, and I wanted one with ye, but it was just that. Talk. And now…can I be what the lass needs?”

“I’ll say it again, Hamish. We are a family. You an’ me. We’ll do it together.”

After Eggsy’s finished eating they clean up the kitchen and go upstairs. Merlin clears off the spare bed while Eggsy organizes the clothing and supplies he’s brought along. They wash her face and use Eggsy’s toothbrush to brush her little teeth. He changes her diaper and gets her back into her pajamas before Merlin carefully turns back the covers on the bed. Eggsy curls up next to her and sings a few lullabies. She’s had a rough day and easily falls to sleep holding his thumb in her hand. He carefully slides out of bed and covers her before they tiptoe out of the room.

“Ye make it look so easy, lad,” Merlin says with a sigh. He leans in the doorway of their bedroom as Eggsy changes into his nightclothes. “I don’t…”

“Ya told me once ya don’t think yer capable of loving someone right.” Eggsy wraps himself around Merlin’s slender body. “Babe, you’ve been loving me right for almost ten years now. You are so full of love…one of the most loving people I have ever met. Ya just don’t keep it up on tha surface. Ya loved Harry…ya love the knights…ya love Daisy an’ Mum. An’ don’t get me started on how ya love me.” 

“I love you with my entire existence,” Merlin murmurs, and Eggsy shudders in his arms.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Eggsy shoves down his pajama bottoms, winks, and tugs Merlin to bed. “Been a fortnight since I left…think ya should remind me how much ya love me.”

 

Something startles Merlin into wakefulness hours later. Eggsy snores beside him, exhausted from his mission. Merlin pulls on his pajama bottoms and dressing gown before sliding on his slippers. There’s the sound again…a whimper.

He quietly walks down the hall to the spare room, turning on the hall light before opening the door. Marguerite is sitting up in bed and he curses himself for not leaving some sort of light on for her. “Pere?” She sniffles. 

“Aye, lass. Shh.” He picks her up and carries her to the rocking chair in the corner, a relic he’d rescued from Harry’s house simply because it was so ugly he couldn’t bear the thought of someone else having it. 

“Papa?”

“Papa is sleeping. He’s a brave man, saving the world. He needs his rest.”

She nods as if she understands him, tucking her head under his chin. “Pere,” she whispers, holding Merlin’s fingers the way she’d held Eggsy’s. She starts to suck her thumb and Merlin rubs his cheek on the top of her head.

“Your Papa is wonderful,” he tells her. “He is brave and strong, but the kindest man ye will ever meet. He will watch over ye like a hawk, cushion the ground every time your heart breaks, so ye can put it back together again. It’s what he does for me.” Marguerite grunts in response and he grins. It’s rare he gets to talk without interruption in this house. “He will be the soft one, that I know for sure. I will have to be the discipline. But ye will be a good girl, won’t you?” She reaches up and pats his cheek. “Aye, so we’ve come to an understanding, then, little flower.” He sighs. “Ye are the scariest thing I’ve ever come in contact with, lass. But I will do my best to be what ye need.”

“That’s all I can ask,” Eggsy says from the doorway. “So…is this my answer?” He wanders over to smile down at them. “Hello, little one.” He reaches down for her but she snuggles closer to Merlin.

“Pere.”

“Well.” Eggsy’s grin broadens.

“Dinnae look so smug.” Merlin tilts his face up and Eggsy kisses him. “Now get back to bed. Ye need your rest. I have things under control here.”

“Yes. You do.” Eggsy leans down and kisses him again.

“Bisou.” Marguerite tilts her face up.

“Of course.” Eggsy kisses her cheek. “Good night, Hamish.”

“Good night, my love.” Merlin watches him leave the room and then picks Marguerite up to put her back in bed. She grabs his hand and he lays down next to her, curling himself around her tiny body. “Good night, little flower.”


End file.
